Consumer appliances, such as refrigerator appliances, generally include a cabinet that defines an internal chamber. In the case of refrigerator appliances, a chilled chamber may be defined for receipt of food articles for storage. Refrigerator appliances can also include various storage components mounted within the chilled chamber and designed to facilitate storage of food items therein. Such storage components can include racks, bins, shelves, or drawers that receive food items and assist with organizing and arranging of such food items within the chilled chamber.
Some existing refrigerator appliances include one or more shelves for holding or supporting food items within the chilled chamber. The shelves of such refrigerator appliances may be mounted in a number of different ways. For instance, the liner positioned within the cabinet of some refrigerator appliances include protrusions that extend out from the liner. Other refrigerator appliances have metal brackets attached to the liner that provide a number of shelf mounting positions. Some refrigerator appliances include a combination of liner protrusions and metal brackets.
These approaches present certain challenges. For instance, protrusions extending from the liner take away from the storage capacity of the shelf and/or the space of the chilled chamber. Further, the shelves mounted to such protrusions may require additional structural support if the span between the liner protrusions is too large. Metal brackets may be costly and may make it more difficult to store tall food items as the tall food items may contact the brackets. Moreover, metal brackets take away from the storage capacity of the chilled chamber.
Accordingly, an appliance with features that address one or more of the challenges noted above would be useful.